This was a truly weird episode. The preview had me thinking I might not like it so much, but my doubts were quickly erased as the episode got underway. Spoilers ahead.

The central conflict of the story pitted The Doctor, Amy and Rory against a mysterious entity calling himself the “Dreamlord,” who challenged them to determine whether they were in a dream or reality. How exactly were they to do this? Well, they would be presented with two threats one real, one a dream. All they had to do was die in the correct one and they’d be free. Of course, if they died in the wrong one they’d simply die.

The title of the episode is really used nicely as it’s a simple reference to letting the next destination be “Amy’s choice” and it’s also the center point of the episode. It’s put on her to choose which reality is the true one and she reaffirms her choice in Rory as the man she loves. There are some great twists as the story progresses, particularly with regard to the “Dreamlord’s” true identity.

The story works really well as a stand alone episode with the new cast. While it doesn’t necessarily advance the major plot of this season, it makes great strides in telling us more about who these characters really are both in terms of how they view themselves and each other. Also, the threat of the TARDIS falling into a star that burns cold and everything around them freezing really struck a chord with me. I just love frozen stuff.

More on Doctor Who 2010:
The Vampires of Venice / The Hungry Earth

I’m sure there is plenty that happens in Philadelphia every single weekend.  So after you read this, please don’t feel the need to tell me about all those other busy, busy Philly weekends.  I don’t really care about those.  I am generally a homebody.  I don’t need to go out to every event.  As I rode the train down to the city today, I thought about how hot it was outside.  And how this first weekend in June has seemed to be impossibly hot every year since we moved into the city.  I was wondering why there were at least 30 other people getting on the 1:15 train with me on a Friday afternoon.  Does no one work anymore? Read more of this article »

Two years ago my friend Kim and I took our kids to Chapala, Mexico for a month long trip. She wanted a real Mexican experience and I wanted to do lots of shopping and sitting on the beach. We both got a little bit of what we wanted and had a mostly fabulous time. But, we also had our four kids: Tyler (4), DJ (3.5), Katelyn (1), and Leena (9 months), so there were inevitable moments of pain and suffering as well. Flash forward to the present day – we’re back for Mexico, Take Two and I’m writing this post from the second floor deck of a beachfront house in the Riviera Maya. Not too shabby. Read more of this article »

DC Comics‘ Brightest Day #3 hits stores today, ptb and I have taken some time over the past two weeks to share our thoughts on issue #2. Things are broken down according to the characters focused on throughout the issue.

Firestorm

PTB: OK, I really don’t get all this Firestorm stuff and I don’t really find their story all that interesting. I understand how they share a body, but the association with the Atom and the Professor is a little lost on me. It’s clear some crazy Black Lantern stuff is going down here so it may lead to a decent pay off.

KevinMLD: The professor used to be merged with the Ronnie Firestorm. That’s kind of the classic Firestorm status quo. Jason was the modern replacement Firestorm, I’m not sure who he was merged with.

I honestly don’t really know much about Firestorm beyond those basics, but I think that the Matrix that the Atom was pursuing is what binds the personalities. So the Atom is trying to help separate them. Obviously the Black Lantern version of Ronnie is still active in some capacity.

I’m also not sure why the resurrected Ronnie is such a jerk as a character. Was he always that way? Is this something new tied to Blackest Night? No idea.

I’m interested to see if the big explosion killed Jason. The reason being that in the last few years DC has launched a series of diverse replacement heroes including a Chinese Atom, an African-American Firestorm, and a Hispanic Blue Beetle. The new Atom had a very short run before DC brought back the classic Ray Palmer Atom that we see here. This left the all-new Atom with very little to do except be brutally murdered by Deathstroke and his new team of Titans. If Jason died here it will continue to look like DC is killing their diverse modern characters to replace them with Silver Age white dudes. Maybe (probably) those Silver Age white dudes should never have been replaced in the first place, but turning their diverse characters into cannon fodder just feels wrong. Why did DC bother introducing them in the first place? No one took them seriously because DC was simultaneously bringing back characters like Hal Jordan and Barry Allen. This gave readers zero incentive to get invested in new characters.

Martian Manhunter

PTB: Who is this crazy mother that hates Rock Band and the Martian Manhunter? This part of the story was brutal and I have no idea if she’s been seen before. Speaking of the Manhunter, his story was kind of creepy. Is the daughter of the the professor someone new too?

KevinMLD: No idea. I thought maybe she was a white Martian, but they don’t need to wear fake skin as far as I know. The daughter of the scientist was the old lady he visited later in the issue. I’m guessing the mother is that monster that was called to Earth before The Martian Manhunter was just a few pages later in this issue.

PTB: That’s a good call about the monster that was called to Earth first. It makes a lot of sense. Seems like they’re trying to build a new supporting cast for the Manhunter here, is that fair to say?

KevinMLD: I’m not sure that the Martian Manhunter has EVER had a supporting cast. If I remember correctly, the only time he’s headlined a title was in the late 90s during the JLA’s hey day, but I certainly didn’t read it.

The Hawks (but not Hawk of Hawk and Dove – seriously who thought resurrecting three Hawk characters at the same time was a good idea?)

PTB: The Hawks’ story is getting interesting and some of the new (to me at least) information on Hath-Set helped me to get more of what’s going on there.

KevinMLD: Agreed. This is the strongest part of the series so far not starring Aquaman and giant dead sea life.

PTB: Speaking of dead sea life, did a bunch of fish die when he and Mera entered the water on the one page they were on?

KevinMLD: Good catch. It sure looks that way to me!

Anti-Monitor

PTB: Then there’s this Anti-Monitor stuff at the end again that I know is supposed to be HUGE, but it’s meaningless to me even though I know you’ve explained that the Anti-Monitor is the baddest of the cosmic universal bad guys. And doesn’t Planet Qward have something to do with Sinestro?

KevinMLD: My understanding is Sinestro was banished to Qward when he was kicked out of the Green Lantern Corps. Qward later became the Sinestro Corps home world. But it’s also where the Anti-Monitor came from… Think of him kind of as DC’s Galactus, but less human. I don’t remember him being much of a talker.

I wish the Deadman story would pick up. So far he’s really annoying and I want him to be awesome.

PTB: Given the ending, I think Deadman’s story pretty much has to pick up. The Anti-Monitor seemed to be very much aware of his presence even if the rest of the world isn’t.

The artwork was decent on this issue, but it looks like they used a team approach. It was pretty consistent throughout though so it worked well. The crazy lady, the first Manhunter page and the first Hawks page look fantastic

KevinMLD: I’m very happy with the art so far, but I’m still not totally into this title yet. I wish DC would do a long term weekly-biweekly story at some point that actually starred their A-list characters. None of these year long books have really featured the main Justice League characters interacting in any significant way. Even Trinity which was supposed to star Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman, mostly was about alternate versions of their supporting casts on a quest to find the three of them and bring them back to Earth as they had evolved basically into gods on another world.

I just don’t see Martian Manhunter and Firestorm being able to sustain a bi-weekly book for an entire year.

PTB: I agree with you completely about the absence of A-listers, but at the same time I’m not sure if I’d be any more into the book if they were there. I liked that Blackest Night didn’t suffer from too much Superman, Batman or Wonder Woman. Obviously Green Lantern and Flash are bigger characters than Manhunter and Firestorm, and they were at the center of Blackest Night so that puts Brightest Day in a very different place. They’ve been the focus so far, but there’s a whole host of other resurrected characters that haven’t really been touched on at all and we both agree that the Aquaman and Hawk people stories are solid.

I think this is unfolding nicely and I’ll continue to give it a shot. The $2.99 price point really helps too.

KevinMLD: About the missing resurrected characters I can tell you the following:

Hawk is appearing over in Birds of Prey, which had a fantastic debut issue.

Captain Boomerang is appearing in Flash.

Osiris is a part of the Deathstroke led Titans book, which had a terrible debut issue.

Max Lord is the antagonist of the other 26 issue bi-weekly DC book starring the Justice League International, which has so far been incredibly bland.

Read our thoughts on:
Brightest Day #1 / Brightest Day #3

More on the series can be found at our Brightest Day hub.

I suppose there had to be a week without an issue of X-Men: Second Coming shipping. Every week for 14 weeks was just too good to be true. As anxious as I am to know what’s coming next, the break just makes the anticipation that much sweeter. There’s only one more issue of each of the titles involved before the finale, so I’m expecting everyone to put out some of their best work once things start back up.

While we’re waiting, it provides an opportunity to say a few words about two of the Second Coming tie in books that slipped through the cracks last month.

Read more of this article »